Mid-Week Post

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B!#ch:

Premier Kathleen Wynne says she’s going ahead with a one-week trade mission to China on October 25 despite growing pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.

“We support the ability of people to express freely their opinions,” Wynne told reporters Wednesday when asked about the timing of her trip with representatives from about 60 companies.

The premier said she raised the issue in a meeting with the Chinese consul-general in Toronto on Monday but wouldn’t commit to pressing officials for a speedier pace on voting reforms.
“I am going to work in the context of the federal government’s relations with China,” she added before heading outside to help raise the People’s Republic of China flag in front of Queen’s Park to mark the 65th anniversary of the country founded in 1949.

Typical Liberal. 


And people expected something different?

A GIF of a police officer pepper-spraying a non-violent man during the Hong Kong protests is going viral. 

The clip comes from a live-stream video of the protests. In it, a police officer reaches over a barricade and grabs an elderly protestor by the shoulder, turning him around so he can pepper-spray him at point-blank range.

Sure, Jimmy. Sure:

Jimmy Carter attempts to kick Glenn Beck around. Former President Jimmy Carter marked his 90th birthday Wednesday with a lengthy interview on CNBC Meets where he discussed his one term in office and the one thing he would have handled differently — the Iran Hostage Crisis. 

Carter suggested Operation Eagle Claw, a failed 1980 attempt to rescue the hostages taken by Iranian revolutionaries at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, could have been successful if he committed one more helicopter to the mission. 

"I think I would have been re-elected easily if I had been able to rescue our hostages from the Iranians," Carter said. "And everybody asks me what would do more, I would say I would send one more helicopter because if I had one more helicopter, we could have brought out not only the 52 hostages, but also brought out the rescue team, and when that failed, then I think that was the main factor that brought about my failure to be re-elected. So that's one thing I would change."

Operation Eagle Claw was aborted after three of the helicopters taking part in the mission experienced mechanical problems. 

Carter also said he believed he would have been re-elected if he took military action against Iran in response to the taking of the hostages. Though he argued he "could have wiped Iran off the map," Carter said he thought avoiding war was the "right decision."

"I could've been re-elected if I'd taken military action against Iran, shown that I was strong and resolute and, um, manly and so forth," said Carter, adding: "I could have wiped Iran off the map with the weapons that we had, but in the process a lot of innocent people would have been killed, probably including the hostages, and so I stood up against all that, er, all that advice, and then eventually my prayers were answered and every hostage came home safe and free. And so I think I made the right decision in retrospect, but it was not easy at the time."

 

And now, something awesome:

The shipwreck found in the Arctic has been identified as HMS Erebus, the vessel on which Sir John Franklin himself sailed — and may even have perished — in search of the Northwest Passage in 1845.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who took obvious delight last month in delivering news of the discovery of the ship from Franklin’s doomed voyage, revealed Wednesday just which of the two it is.

“I’m delighted to confirm that we have identified which ship from the Franklin expedition has been found,” Harper told the House of Commons.

“It is, in fact, the HMS Erebus.”

The discovery of the wreck, found some 11 metres below the surface in the Queen Maud Gulf, was confirmed Sept. 7, but was not identified until now.

The two ships of the Franklin Expedition and their crews, 129 members in all, disappeared during an 1845 quest for the Northwest Passage. So far, the location of the other ship, HMS Terror, remains a mystery.